Bonds of Blood & Friendship
by Midnight Bubbles
Summary: '"They'll find out you know," Draco said, "And when they do you'll become the enemy, not just me." "I don't know what you're talking about," I avoided his probing grey eyes.' Kitty and her sister are forced to attend Hogwarts after their parents are arrested, though they're hiding a secret that threatens their chance of escaping. Follows main plot with golden trio, long sum on prof
1. Children of Fate

**Hi guys! Here's a new story for you, hopefully something that catches your interest. Let me know what you think please!  
****Also, if anyone is looking for a beta reader for their story, I'm here to help! Love you all, you little llamas! R&R please :)**

* * *

**Chapter One - 'Children of Fate'**

* * *

The woman was only protecting her child. Her love for him would not permit that she stand idly by while his life was snatched away from him. It had only been a few short months of bliss before it was all torn away by that fateful night. They had taken all the precautions and prepared for the worst situations, but they had never seen this coming. After so many years with the man, Lily and James had nothing but the utmost trust in Sirius. He had loved Harry like his own son. To think it was him who had been their undoing was madness, and yet who else could have betrayed their location to the Dark Lord?

With dread filling her heart, Lily had one last defense remaining to protect her son; herself. She flung herself in front of the crib as the door flew from its hinges and a man, if that's what you could call him, dressed in dark robes, stepped into the room. Watching him enter, Lily felt a strange sense of calm. She knew that her husband lying dead on the floor, that her friends who had been a part of the resistance were also lost to this world, and she knew that she would be joining them soon. Hope for her own survival was futile, but her son deserved every last chance to live. After all, he was special, her Harry.

It didn't hurt like she thought it would, not the dying part. Knowing that there was nothing else she could do for her son, that was what hurt. The flash of green light blinded her and there was a searing pain in her whole body. And then as fast as it had happened, it was over. Her spirit drifted and she watched from above as her limp body fell aside as Voldemort stepped closer to the crib. She could almost sense his satisfaction and dark pleasure at finally being able to destroy the last thing that threatened him. Just a baby.

Little baby Harry sat up in his crib, startling clear blue eyes gazing up at his mother's killer in absent curiosity. Voldemort raised his wand. As the words were whispered, "Avada Kedavra," and the green light shot out, time seemed to stop and everything changed.

Miles away, in a small abandoned shack, a small baby girl woke from slumber and began to cry.

* * *

Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore was a man of many talents. He was incredibly intelligent, gifted in the highest forms of magic and had been growing his renowned silvery beard for over one hundred years. As he picked up the wailing child from his crib, he realised that Harry didn't need any of that; not a highly intelligent person, not a person who could perform magic and defeat others in duels, and not even someone with a magnificent beard. All he needed was someone who would love him.

"Professor Dumbledore, sir!" A gravelly, accented voice called from behind him. Thundering footsteps sounded and the large half giant Hagrid appeared in the doorway, peering in anxiously, tears evident in his shining dark eyes. "Is it true?"

Dumbledore turned, baby Harry still in his arms, struggling to grab hold of the older wizards beard.

"Yes, Hagrid. What you've heard is undoubtedly true," Dumbledore answered as Harry tugged painfully. Hagrid broke down into more tears, with great racking sobs that shook the house. "Now now, Hagrid," Dumbledore placed a long fingered hand on the great man's shoulder, "Pull yourself together, I am in need of your services."

Hagrid nodded, his chin wobbling as he used a tablecloth sized handkerchief to wipe the tears from his eyes and wildly tangled beard. "Anythin', sir."

"You must take Harry and meet me at 12 Privet Drive in Surrey, Little Whinging. Do not let anything delay you." Dumbledore had another task to do tonight that could not wait. Harry was too young to apparate and that night was still full of shadows lurking for him to stay in this place for much longer.

Dumbledore gently placed the bundle of blankets into Hagrid's awaiting arms, though Harry would have fit in the palm of his hand easily with room to spare. As he did so, Dumbledore noticed a small scar on his forehead, a lightning bolt. A relic of this night that would stay with him forever.

Hagrid held the child gingerly and looked tenderly down at him. "Leave it ter me, sir." he said and slowly made his way downstairs, moving extra carefully and holding Harry delicately.

Dumbledore looked around the room and gazed down upon the two dead bodies lying on the floor; Lily and James Potter. It was not often Dumbledore felt this kind of deep sadness anymore, but these two had been special. So full of life and potential, a young family starting their journey together.

With a raise of his wand, Dumbledore sent a quick patronus message to alert the authorities of the tragedy that had befallen the Potters. He wished he could spend longer to pay his respects and help with their transportation, but tonight his duties were not done. There was another child, miles away, who would be vital for what was to come.

The second child Dumbledore went to see was in a small village. He apparated just outside the house and wandered inside. He searched for the child, he located a small nursery and walked over to the crib. He expected to find the young baby girl sleeping peacefully, but what he found was not what he expected.

Instead of the little girl, he found a note, addressed to him.

'_Tonight, there has been much death. The Dark Lord will return once more, and until such a day, the girl will remain with us. She belongs to the Dark Lord and we are his servants. Leave us be or the girl will not survive to see her next birthday.'_

Dumbledore was shocked, which was something of a rarity these days. He decided that he would have to search for her later and apparated to 12 Privet Drive to deliver a letter and a baby to the Dursley family.

* * *

"How do you ask a tyrannosaurus out to lunch?"

Ally sighed. "Not another one of your lame jokes, Kitty."

"I know the suspense is killing you so I'll put you out of your misery. The answer is, you ask, 'Tea, Rex?'"

Ally gave me a glare and went back to inspecting her nails.

"Oh come on!" I complained, throwing a pillow at her. "That one was funny!"

Ally rolled her eyes.

For my little sister, she sure was a buzz kill. We'd been cooped up in our house for the past few weeks with nothing but my amazing jokes and her loud complaints to keep us company. Our parents had gone out, yet again, for some job they had to do. They never told us what they did exactly, just a rough estimate for when they would be back. This time, they were over a week late. Unfortunately for us, that meant we had to sit in our shack of a home until they returned, even though we were a few miles away from the closest muggle village.

"Any word from Mum or Dad?" Ally asked me from her spot on the floor of our shared bedroom.

I shook my head no and gave a forlorn look to the parchment stuck on the wall behind my bed. If they wrote a message on the parchment's counterpart, we would see. So far; nothing.

"What do you think they do on these little trips of theirs?"Ally asked me, her dark brown eyes staring up at me innocently. She was only 13 years old, three years my junior. "They never say where or what they're doing. They never come back on time, and even when they are home they're planning their next trip or popping in and out of meetings with mystery people."

I sighed and sat on the edge of my bed, wishing against hope for the thousandth time that mum and dad would come back and I wouldn't have to explain away their absence. I mean, I wanted to know too.

Ally was still looking at me, expecting me to have all the answers. "Honestly, I have no idea what they're doing. And I don't want to know. If they want to conceal it from us, they must have a good reason so I think it's only fair that we let them have their secrets."

Ally looked down at her hands as she fiddled with her hawthorn wand. I knew that look. i knew that look very well in fact.

"Ally..." I started, a note of warning in my voice. "What did you do?"

She tugged on one of her blonde curls self consciously and looked up at me finally. "I followed them." she confessed quietly.

"You did what?" the exclamation burst from my lips. The large tawny owl in the corner of the room gave a flutter of irritation and glared at me balefully. "Oh shut it, Malar," I ordered.

Ally gave me a chagrinned look and tried to explain herself. "I didn't mean to, it just sort of happened. One minute they were about to leave and the next I'd cast a silencing charm on my footsteps and I set off after them."

I rolled my eyes and laid back down on my bed with a huff, trying to work out the cluster of emotions that were battling for attention in my mind. While most of that was along the line of 'she shouldn't have done that', some emotions centered around... curiosity.

I let the silence draw out, probably torturing my little sister to no end.

"Say something!" she demanded desperately after a minute.

"... where did they go?" I asked, giving in to my curiosity.

Ally was visibly relieved to see that I wasn't angry. "They walked to the edge of the muggle town down the road. They opened up some sort of hidden chest and took something, robes maybe, and then disapparated. I didn't want to get too close in case they saw me, but I could hear snippets of their conversation. It sounded like they were arguing about something..." Ally's eyes had a faraway look, "I wish they would tell us what they were doing. Maybe we could help!"

I couldn't deny that I was guiltily glad that Ally had spied on them. Once upon a time when I was her age, the same idea had crossed my mind once or twice. However, having tried to pry once before, I knew better.

"Can you imagine how pissed they would be if they found out?" I asked of Ally. "They would turn you into a frog and stew you for dinner!"

"I know, but I couldn't help-" Ally started.

"No! You don't understand, our parents aren't what they seem. Doing something like that can get you locked up, or worse."

Ally gulped visibly and nodded, eyes downcast.

"Sorry, Ally," I said after a while. She didn't respond.

"Want to hear another joke?"

I racked my brain for another joke of knee-slapping hilarity, but before I got the chance to voice it, the front door in the other room slammed open and one pair of footsteps made their way inside our little cottage.

Ally and I exchanged heavy glances.

"Mum and dad are back!" Ally exclaimed, eyes lighting up.

I shook my head, drew my phoenix feather wand and motioned for her to be quiet.

"That's not mum or dad," I whispered, "There's a stranger in our house."

**Thanks for reading! Dinosaurs are cool. R&R**


	2. When a Stranger Calls

**Chapter Two - 'When A Stranger Calls'**

* * *

"Quiet." I raised my wand and cast silencing charms on our footsteps. Ally followed me as we made our way through our bedroom door and into the hall. A few feet away, a doorway led into the entry way of our house. Shuffling sounded and I found myself creeping along the hallway, back against the wall. I couldn't help the sweat that beaded on my forehead and palms. Mum and dad had always instilled caution in us from the day we were born, telling us that strangers should be treated as hostile.

I held back Ally and gave her a glare to tell her that it was my job to figure out who this was and how they had managed to get past our wards that prevented a persons entry. Obviously this person wasn't just an ordinary muggle who had wandered in unbeknownst. Wand first, I rounded the corner and stepped through the doorway, leaving Ally behind me in the hallways and out of sight.

"Who are you and what are you doing in our house?!" I demanded of the intruder.

She stood by the doorway, closely inspecting a painting of a horse that hung on the wall. The horse got startled and reared before bolting out of the canvas. At my voice, the stranger turned and faced me. I examined her features, looking for anything remotely familiar. Her long, wildly tangled hair was a deep black with a grey streak, almost white in its paleness. Her face was sallow and pale also, with sharp, wide eyes that looked at me with a crazed curiosity and covetous, though I knew not why. She was tall and dressed in all black, the only colour on her apart from her hair and skin.

"Well hello deary," she spoke in a whiny, high tone her voice showing the disapproval of her greeting.

"What are you doing here? How did you get in?" I asked, not lowering my wand. She eyed it with discontent.

"I'm here to see your parents, Katherine," she answered in a bored tone, "and your wards were childishly easy to dispel. Now, _if you please_, I would very much like some wine and a chair to sit and wait, not that I should be forced to wait in the first place."

"My parents never said anything about a visitor. Leave, or I will force you to." My words seemed to spark something in her cold eyes, and her lips curled into a sneer.

"You insolent little-" she whipped her black wand from its sheath at her side, aiming it straight at my head. A dark blue spell, something unknown to me, was flung my way, but I was ready. I blocked it with a strong _Protego_ spell and held my ground, eyes shut tight to receive the onslaught.

"_Bellatrix!_" someone yelled.

I opened my eyes to see my parents standing between me and the crazy git.

"What the bloody hell is going on here?" my mum shouted, her wand raised hesitating between both me and Bellatrix.

Mum and dad were somehow different since I'd last seen them. Mum still had the same sapphire blue eyes that I had, though their sparkle had diminished. And dad's hair, a coppery red the same colour as my own hair, was mussed and tangled, as though they had spent a week camping in the wilderness. Their eyes looked thoroughly exhausted and empty. They both wore the same black cloak as Bellatrix.

"Mum? Dad?" I asked timidly. Bellatrix was glaring at me from behind my parents. If looks could kill...

"Katherine, go upstairs," dad ordered. He never used my full name unless he was serious.

I nodded and walked backwards through the doorway, holding Bellatrix's glare with one of my own. What a bitch. When I stepped into the hallway, Ally grabbed my arm and pulled me to the floor with her. I gave her a reassuring squeeze of her hand and put my finger to my lips. We both leaned towards the doorway to listen.

"What are you doing here?" dad asked so quietly, I almost couldn't make it out.

Bellatrix gave an unattractive snort of laughter. "Your daughter was almost as welcoming as you. The Dark Lord wants to know how many you've recruited so far, _and_ he wants to check up on how little bitty Katherine and Allison are..."

There was silence for a few moments before mum spoke up. "We haven't had much luck. They've been... _resisting_ our attempts at recruit. As for the girls, they've been under strict training and spell work. They should be ready soon."

Bellatrix gave a sharp laugh. "Ready soon? The Dark Lord wants answers _now_. He's afraid you're getting soft... starting to... _like_ them."

Ally was squeezing my hand so hard that it was going numb.

"No," dad said. "They are only weapons, we know that. They'll be ready."

The conversation was an overload of confusion and suspicion. I had absolutely no idea what they were talking about. Who was this Dark Lord they spoke of? Why were they calling us weapons? The trio began to speak again and I moved closer. But before I could make out what they were saying, several loud cracks sounded. At first, I thought the house was breaking apart, then I realised that several people had apparated into straight into our house.

"Put the wands down and your hands up!" I heard someone shout.

I had watched enough muggle cop shows to know that something big was going down right about now. I stood up and grabbed Ally to pull her with me. We headed for the kitchen, and I told her to ignore the noise of shouts and spells being cast. I pushed her down below the counter and followed her, hiding from whoever was attacking our home. It sounded as though a battle were going on and I heard the mad cackle of Bellatrix right before another pop sounded and the cackle ended.

"Search the house!" someone shouted and footsteps immediately sounded down the hall. I prayed that they wouldn't come into the kitchen, but luck wasn't with me today.

"There's someone there!" I heard another shout as they entered the kitchen. "Put any weapons down and come out with your hands up!"

Ally was looking at me with wide green eyes, depending on me to get us out of this situation. Who were these people and why were they raiding our house? I couldn't hear my parents anymore and despite what they had said earlier, I found myself bubbling with anger and hatred for the people who had taken them.

Grabbing my wand tightly, I jumped up from underneath the counter and whirled around to the attackers, casting a _Protego_ to protect against the oncoming spells. There were more attackers than I had thought, and each of them cast red jets of light at me without hesitation. The combined power of the spells broke through my shield easily and hit me square on the chest. I could feel myself being pushed backwards through the air, and felt a slight twinge of pain as I hit the sink and fell to the floor. The world went black.

* * *

"I'm telling you, she's not dangerous. She's been unconscious for the past two days and, with the amount of damage she's taken, she'll probably be out for a lot longer. Those were some powerful spells. Even a full grown witch would never have been able to deflect them completely."

"Even so, we aren't about to take any chances. What with her heritage, there's no telling what kind of dark magic she could be hiding. The charms will stay on, conscious or not."

"It's barbaric, really! She's just a child, sixteen years old I'm guessing. While her aura shows she's quite powerful, there's not a dark part of her."

"Are you questioning the authority of an Auror, mediwizard? While I appreciate your professional opinion, this is a matter of security _not_ of medicine."

Pain, confusion, darkness. My mind refused to connect thoughts and actions. How did you open your eyes again? I managed to crack open one eyelid. Blinding white walls and furniture assaulted my vision and I quickly shut them again. Obviously this would take some adjusting.

I attempted to move my arm, and felt that it was constricted, though by what I had no idea. I opened my eye just a crack again and, squinting, turned my head to the side. I was lying upon a bed, though it may as well have been cardboard for how stiff it was. From the looks of the room around me, it seemed as though I were in a hospital, though I was the only patient in the room.

My arms lay by my side, relaxed against the white sheets, though I still couldn't move them. Or my legs. What were those spells? The memories came flooding back to me and it made my head ache to think of what had happened.

"She's... she's awake." Two men were at the foot of my bed, staring down at me. One, presumably the mediwizard with the white coat, was gaping at me and holding his chart like a lifeline. "How- you were hit with a dozen spells. Variations of disarming and paralysis. You should be in a coma."

The other figure, obviously more composed, was a harsh looking wizard with dark robes on. He stared at me with a quizzical, suspicious gaze and didn't say anything.

My first instinct was to grab my wand. But of course I was paralyzed from the neck down and my wand was no where in sight.

"What have you done to me?"I asked desperately.

The mediwizard shook his head and hurried out the door, muttering something to himself. I glimpsed two guards standing watch on the outside of the door as it swung open.

The harsher wizard spoke, "We've detained you. Don't worry, the spell isn't permanent. You're in hospital recovering."

"Why are you doing this? Where's my family?" I asked, my anxiety increasing as my mind cleared and the entire situation dawned on me.

He didn't reply immediately but instead walked up to my bed and sat on a chair across from me. "If you answer my questions, I'll tell you what has become of your family."

I didn't like the way this was turning out. "Who are you?"

"You don't need to know who I am. All you need to know is that I'm with the Ministry of Magic."

"What's the Ministry of Magic?"

Silence.

"This is going to be harder than I thought." The wizard sighed and ran a hand down his lined face. "Do you know who your parents are?"

I furrowed my brow and gave him a strange look. "Of course I do. They're my parents, Gordon and Libby Kelley."

The wizard nodded and grabbed a notepad from inside his robe, along with a long feathered green quill. He blew into it and placed it on the notepad. It began to write by itself. "And do you know what they do? What kind of people they are?"

It wasn't a hard question by any means, but in all honesty I had no idea. They were absent for a good part of my life and when they were there, they were forcing my sister and I to study and learn witchcraft and potion making, the simplest of spells to the deadliest of potions, without a reason why. It didn't leave too much time for heart to hearts, but I had always felt like they were doing it to protect me.

"They have a job that they have to travel for. My sister and I stay at home. They're good people; they let us stay up late, give us gifts for doing well in our studies and only punish us when we do the wrong thing. But I'm not going to answer any more of your questions until I see my sister and know that she's okay."

"What-" the wizard began another question, but was interrupted.

"Sir, Professor Dumbledore is here to see you." the guard at the door announced loudly, peeking his head in curiously.

"Tell him I will be out to see him in a moment."

"He said you would say that-"

"Fine! Send him in."

I was expecting another hard faced, tired man to walk in and begin to question me but was surprised by who came in instead. With long midnight blue robes and a bright silvery beard down to his waist, the old bespectacled man wandered inside. He was smiling kindly at the wizard seated next to me and bowed his head in greeting when he reached the end of my bed.

"What is it, Professor?" the grumpy wizard asked of the older one.

"Might I speak to Katherine alone for a moment? It seems that she may need some time to adjust before she can answer any more of your questions." He turned his eyes, sparkling blue behind his half moon glasses, to me. "And I'm sure Katherine wouldn't mind a hearty meal." He retrieved his wand from the sleeve of his robes and waved it with a practiced flick. A bowl of soup with a side of bread appeared on my bedside table next to me, and seconds later a bowl of yellow sweets followed.

The grumpy Ministry wizard sighed, stood and left the room.

"I must apologise most sincerely for their treatment of you, Miss Kelley." Dumbledore started as he sat down. He waved his wand once more and my paralysis was lifted. "Sometimes I think Aurors take their jobs too seriously." Another kind smile as he reached for the yellow sweets.

I soon learned the Dumbledore was a very kind man. While it calmed me down somewhat to listen to his ramblings, it also made me suspicious. No one was nice without a reason for being so. He didn't question me about my family or what had gone down apparently two days ago, he didn't even ask anything about myself, he just let me sit and eat the soup and bread (which was delicious, by the way) and become more comfortable with my surroundings and what had happened. But once the comfortable feeling wore off, the panicky anxious feelings returned. Halfway through his sentence about the new salmon coloured robes he had purchased, I had to interrupt.

"Sorry, sir. But I have to know- where is my sister? Is she okay?"

Dumbledore didn't look at all offended by my interruption, in fact quite the opposite. He looked as though he had been expecting it.

"She is quite alright. It was a very noble thing you did, jumping out to save her. It prevented the Aurors from attacking her after they realised that you were just kids." Dumbledore reached for another yellow sweet. "She is at the Ministry of Magic as we speak. She has been questioned regarding your parents and their involvement with the Death Eaters." I could tell he was looking for some sort of reaction, recognition perhaps, but I had no knowledge of any "death eaters".

"I suppose you want to question me now?" I asked. It didn't sound as bad as it did before, knowing that my sister was okay.

Dumbledore smiled and shook his head. "No," he stated, "I think I have everything I need to know. It was lovely chatting with you."

Curiously, Dumbledore emptied the bowl of sweets into one of his voluminous pockets and gave me a wink. "Lemon drops," he explained. "I'm quite partial to them." He waved his wand and the leftovers of my meal disappeared. He walked towards the door and turned to face me once more. "I'll see you soon," he said mysteriously. Before I could respond, he had turned on his heel and disapparated with a crack.

"Crazy old man," I muttered under my breath as the door opened once more and the grumpy old ministry wizard from before entered.

"Alright, I have a few more questions to ask," he started, but was interrupted once more by an owl flying right through the open window on the other side of the room. It held a note in its beak and landed haughtily on the wizards shoulder. He read the note and sighed.

"Never mind. You're cleared. What do you say to going to school?"

I narrowed my eyes suspiciously. I had never been to school before, let alone a wizard school. "What school?"

"Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Professor Dumbledore is the headmaster and has kindly offered to house you and your sister as students."  
"Do we have to?" I asked.

"Its either that or you stay at the Ministry under supervision. Your parents won't be able to look after you anymore. They're... otherwise occupied."

While the reasoning was shady at best and I knew there was so much more lying underneath the Auror's words, this was looking to be the best chance I was going to get to see my sister. Guess I was going to school.

**Thanks for reading :) Let me know what you think or where it should head R&R x**


	3. She Took The Midnight Train

**Chapter Three - 'She Took the Midnight Train'**

* * *

The day after I woke up from my magically induced coma, St Mungo's Hospital declared me officially fully recovered. I still hadn't seen Ally yet and with every passing minute I grew even more anxious. I felt defenseless, vulnerable and alone and I could only imagine what Ally would be feeling at the Ministry of Magic.

Various mediwizards hurried about around me as I was preparing to leave for the Hogwarts Express. The ticket was tucked into the back pocket of the oversized jeans I had been given. One mediwizard, a young woman with large glasses perched on the end of her nose, came up to me and asked me to sign something. I gave it a cursory glance, something about signing out of the hospital officially, and picked up my measly luggage. During the fight back at my old home, a stray spell had unfortunately started a cursed fire, effectively burning all of our possessions. I had a small duffel bag filled with salvaged things and odds and ends found around the hospital; a toothbrush, some pajamas and some spare changes of underwear.

In my other hand, I held an old worn sandal, the port key that would take me to the train station and to the next leg of this crazy, messed up nightmare I was having.

"Miss?" another mediwizard asked. "You wand." He held up my beautiful, perfectly balanced, unicorn hair wand. God had I missed it. When I picked it gently out of his hand and warmth spread up my arm. I felt like it was greeting me, if that were even possible. I finally felt ready to leave.

The sandal in my hand started to glow, perfectly timed and I stood straight, giving one last glance to those around me. Within ten seconds, one of the strangest sensations began and I was thrust into a magical vortex, spinning and turning around with no sense of where or who I was. After what felt like an age, the vortex finally spat me out and I landed gave first on the floor of Kings Cross Station, in a small alcove away from prying muggle eyes.

I threw the sandal behind me and stood, dusting off my clothes. This would be the second time I had ever been in muggle society and I was well, scared if truth be told. Muggles were a foreign species to me and my parents had always spoken of them in a way that made them sound inferior and the exact opposite of us.

As I rounded the corner and searched for platform nine and ten, the crowds of muggles pushed and confused me, all wearing business suits and carrying bags and suitcases, their faces concentrating on weaving through the crowds and finding their train. Eventually I found the platform and, remembering the words of the monotoned mediwizard who had explained it to me, gave a run up and slipped through the wall between the two platforms. I came out on the other side, slightly disoriented. I stumbled slightly and my bag fell from my hand, its contents spilling out on the floor beside the train track.

"Of course," I mumbled, bending down to pick my things up. "Bloody bag." Crawling around on the floor of the train station was not what I'd had in mind. My toothbrush had managed to skid across the floor to rest beside someone's polished italian leather shoes. Trying to ignore the stare I could feel on my back, I reached out and grabbed it.

"I see they'll let anyone into Hogwarts these days, mother." I overheard a snarky voice comment. My face burned red despite my resolve to not care and I hurriedly repacked my bag. I stood up and wandered in the first direction I thought of, looking back to see a tall blonde headed figure walking in the opposite direction. "Git," I muttered. A mother beside me gave me a glare and shook her head, leading her child away hurriedly.

The hurried, business minded crowd of Kings Cross Station had transformed into a vibrant sea of families seeing off their children. Owls swooped and swerved around in the air above everyone's heads while cats and other creatures followed their owners dutifully on the ground. I saw the great red steam train with 'Hogwarts Express' written across it, students piling on and various workers packing luggage and snacks onto the train for the trip. I hoisted my duffel higher on my shoulder and jumped onto the train, narrowly avoiding a young girl who sprinted on to join her friends. They started giggling and fluffing their hair as a cute boy walked by and winked at them. I rolled my eyes.

The train was extremely crowded, filled with students milling around, reuniting with friends and catching up on the summers news and gossip. I might as well have been invisible with the amount of attention people paid me, which I was perfectly fine with thank you very much. All I wanted to do was survive until I met my sister at Hogwarts. I squeezed my duffel bag and I through the train and found a compartment that was mercifully free. I slammed the door shut behind me and shoved the duffel on the rack above the seats.

I threw myself down onto the seat and settled in for a nap, St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies wasn't the most comfortable or quiet places in the world what with my next door neighbour who had been turned into a overly vocal rhinoceros. Of course, with the luck I had been having today, I wasn't going to get any rest on that train trip.

Within minutes, the chatter that had been going on outside the compartment almost doubled in volume. I couldn't catch whole sentences but a few words stood out, they seemed to be talking about some "chosen one." Who were these people? I cast a silencing charm on the door so that no sound could pass through and silence, beautiful, peaceful silence followed. I closed my eyes once more.

"They're even staring at _us_, because we're with you!" a voice pervaded the silence. My eyes snapped open once more.

Three people, two boys and a girl, stepped into the compartment, shutting the door hastily behind them and sitting down. The girl had long, ragged blonde hair and wide staring eyes, and one of the boys, tall and round faced, watched her shyly.

"They were staring at you because you were both at the Ministry too! Our little adventure was all over the Daily Prophet, you must have-" the boy with the messy black hair and round glasses broke off, finally noticing me sitting in the corner glaring. "Oh- sorry, this was the only compartment left."

I sighed and shrugged, turning away and staring out the window. I could almost hear the trio exchange glances in the pregnant silence. After several awkward moments, they started up a conversation, something about a new wand, but I tuned it out. While they chattered away, I turned my mind to what my plan was. I had been thinking about while in the hospital but now was the only time I really had a moment to sit and hash it out. There was no way I was going to let a bunch of strange wizards take me and my sister away, and there was _absolutely_ no way I was going to believe them when they said that our parents were fine. I would go to this Hogwarts place and pretend everything was dandy, grab Ally and run. Obviously there may be a few hiccups in that plan, but we had enough smarts and motivation between the two of us to get us out of any sticky situation. After we ran from Hogwarts, well... we would cross that bridge when we got to it. We couldn't go back home, it was burnt to the ground, and there was no telling where mum and dad were. I pushed the thought from my mind; I had to focus on the immediate problem, getting my sister and I out of there.

I had just began to ponder on what exactly awaited me at this magic school when my train of thought was interrupted by a girl with dark eyes and thick hair as she pushed her way into the compartment, her giggling friends watching on with rapt attention as she introduced herself as Romilda Vane, asking the boy with the glasses if he wanted to join her compartment. She looked pointedly at the other boys backside that stuck out form under the seat as he rifled around looking for something. "You don't have to sit with them."

"They're friends of mine," the bespectacled boy replied. It was clear from his tone and the way he frowned at her that it was a quick and cold dismissal. Obviously he wasn't impressed.

The Romilda Vane looked so surprised that a snort of laughter broke from me. I coughed in vain to cover it up. Romilda glared at me before she retreated to her very disheartened friends.

"People expect you to have cooler friends than us," the blonde girl pointed out bluntly. I liked her outright honesty.

The bespectacled boy told her that they were cool and went on to discuss things that I couldn't recognise, something about OWLS and NEWTS, whatever they were. I attempted to go back to sleep. Whether I liked it or not, I subconsciously listened to my companions conversation. I soon learned their names and the the girl was very odd indeed, verging on insane, though somehow in a good way. They didn't attempt to talk to me, though whether it was because the didn't want to or could sense the gloom that was radiating off me, I couldn't tell and didn't care. Later, two more students, Ron and Hermione I overheard, joined our compartment, and Harry Potter, the bespectacled boy with the messy black hair, was given a note and soon left after.

Ron sat down next to Neville and Hermione, not given another choice, sat down next to me. Her hair was thick and bushy, though her face and brown eyes were kind as she smiled at me.

"Hi, I'm Hermione Granger," she greeted. "What's your name?"

"Kitty Kelley." I replied, trying in vain to smile politely. Hermione's smile faltered slightly and her eyes widened. "What?" I asked, suddenly self conscious.

"I- nothing. Nothing's wrong. Sorry!" she stuttered out, her smile returning on high beam. "What year are you in?"

"I don't know. I just transferred. I'm sixteen though." I muttered out.

"You're in our year then! That's just great."

I nodded. I could sense she was casting about for another subject, anything to ease the awkwardness of the conversation and I silently begged her to just turn back to her other friends. I could tell they were listening in on our conversation.

"So... where did you transfer from? Beauxbatons?" Hermione asked finally.

I shook my head. What the hell was a beauxbaton? Hermione waited for me to answer her question. "I was... home schooled." I said lamely.

"How interesting," she continued, grasping onto my response like a lifeline for the conversation. "I bet it's going to be so different when you come to Hogwarts. I can only imagine. We have a wide range of subjects that you can choose from, you'll want to know a bit about each before you decide. We have Defense Against the Dark Arts, Potions, Transfiguration, that's a good one..." Hermione rambled on and I lost track of what she was talking about. Luckily for me, the conversation didn't require much input from me.

That pretty much sums up the rest of the train ride. Ron Weasley and Luna Lovegood introduced themselves into the conversation at one point and as they chatted, I listened on with only slight interest in what they were talking about, and responded when one of them occasionally asked me a question. They were nice people and under any other circumstance, I knew that they would have been fast friends of mine. Unfortunately, my transfer to Hogwarts would be only temporary, if I had anything to do with it.

The train eventually came to a stop at a train station sometime after the sun had set. It was dark so I couldn't make out any shapes beyond the windows. Those in my compartment stood and grabbed their luggage, chatting in anticipation about what awaited them at Hogwarts and wondering where Harry had been for the rest of the train trip after Neville had returned. Instead of joining them, I took my time with my bag and waited until everyone had left. I didn't fancy being shoved and pushed again today.

I stepped out into the deserted corridor and started to wander down to the door, but a loud _bang_ that shook the train slightly made me stop in my tracks. My instincts made me flatten to the side of the train as I heard a voice.

"You didn't hear anything I care about, Potter," a snarky voice said. Potter, where did I know that name from? "But while I've got you here."

Just as I peered into the compartment, wand at the ready, a tall boy with familiar italian leather shoes stamped hard onto someone that lay unmoving on the floor. _That snarky little git_, I thought.

"What are you doing?" I demanded, stepping into the compartment.

Blondy looked up at me and raised his wand threateningly. "Who are you?" he asked sneering.

"Does it matter? What do you think you're doing to him?" I raised my own wand to match his.

"That's none of your business." He stepped up to me, and I realised just how tall he was compared to my short stature. It was extremely intimidating but I wouldn't back down. I stared into his hard, grey eyes until he finally stepped back. "Whatever," he said sharply. "I don't have time for this."

I rolled my eyes as he stalked past, earning another grey-eyed glare, and sagged in relief when he was gone. It was then that I remembered the figure on the floor.

"Are you okay?" I asked, kneeling down beside him. I now recognised him as Harry Potter, the boy who had been in my compartment.

He didn't reply, or move for that matter. It was obvious that Blondy had cast some sort of immobilisation spell upon him. I quickly cast a counter-curse and helped Harry stand up once he was free of it.

"Thanks," he gasped out as he held his nose. Blood was gushing from it profusely and I held my breath. "Hey, you were in our compartment."

"Yeah," I replied, eyeing the blood warily. "I'm Kitty."

"Nice to meet you."

"You're losing a lot of blood," I observed.

"Yeah. I am."

"Do you want me to fix that for you?"

"Do you know how?"

I though it was a pretty common, simple spell, but I didn't say that. I just raised my wand to his nose, ignoring the suspicious look he gave it, and tapped it once. The nose righted itself and the blood slowly disappeared from his face. He wriggled it, testing.

"Thanks again."

"No problem."

As I inspected my handiwork, making sure everything was healed properly, I noticed the scar on his forehead, curiously shaped as a lightning bolt. But then Harry had turned and walked out of the compartment and I made to follow. We stepped off the train just as it began its return journey. As I didn't know the way, I followed him as we set off for the castle I could see looming in front of the bright moon. Was that Hogwarts?

"Nice scar," I commented after some time walking. "How'd you get it?"

Harry gave a short bark of laughter, giving me a dry look. "That's funny."

I frowned. "Why?"

Harry gave me a sarcastic look and kept trudging along up the hill. Odd.

"I feel like I'm missing something here," I said after a moment.

"As if you don't know," Harry said suddenly.

"Know _what?_"

"Know who I am and how I got this scar!" he burst.

"Well it's not like I stalk you. How would I know? I just met you."

Harry stared at me like I had grown another head. "Are you a muggleborn?" he asked.

"No."

"Weird..." he muttered under his breath as we kept going. I rolled my eyes. That was becoming a nasty habit.

We made our way up the hill in silence. Halfway up, I could just make out another person making their way down hurriedly.

"Tonks?" Harry asked in surprise as the figure tripped her way towards us.

"Wotcher Harry," the woman greeted, looking visibly relieved to see him. She had brown hair and a long trailing cloak on. "I was just coming to find you. Who's this?"

"This is Kitty..." Harry began.

"Kelley. Kitty Kelley." I finished for him, nodding to Tonks. Her face changed from relieved to wary in an instance.

"Let's go up to the castle." She pulled Harry along ahead, leaving me by myself to trail along behind them.

After quite a lot of walking, we made it to a large set of gates where after an interesting, and heated, exchange between Tonks and a greasy, black clad man called Professor Snape who greeted them, Tonks left and we were then escorted the rest of the way. I felt like such a third wheel, I could sense the unspoken words and animosity between Snape and Harry, just under the surface. We finally made it to the castle which loomed high above me, completely not what I was expecting. We walked inside the entrance hall and Snape turned to me.

"Miss Kelley, Professor McGonagall is expecting you in that classroom." Snape pointed towards a door across the hall and turned briskly to Harry to begin talking to him in a heated voice. I recognised my dismissal and went to knock on the door, glad to have a reason to be out of Snape's gloomy presence.

"Come in," a scottish voice called. I walked in.

"Kitty!" a small, blonde haired girl tackled me in a hug, squeezing the breath out of me.

"Ally," I breathed a sigh of relief. I had missed her. My eyes started to tear up, but I blinked it back. "Are you okay?" I asked.

Ally looked up at me and nodded, her own eyes red and wet. Professor McGonagall was smiling politely and gestured for us to sit down once our reunion had settled. My heart felt a lot lighter than it had a few minutes ago now that I knew for a fact that my sister was in one piece and by my side, safe.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," she said formally, "I am Professor McGonagall. I believe that you two have been offered positions here as students as your parents are unable to care for you presently. I hope that you find the school a welcoming, educational environment."

I nodded and kept my mouth shut. I didn't want to arouse any suspicions as to my objection to this. Our parents were certainly able to care for us! I could feel Ally tense up as she said this and nudged her arm so that she would let it pass.

"Here at Hogwarts, we have four houses that act as our families away from home. There are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each has their own common room where students sleep and spend their free time. You will both be sorted into a house, though you will most likely be in the same one as you are sister."

I didn't really care much for the inner workings of Hogwarts, but I paid attention all the same.

"You will both be taking classes here every week day and have weekends to do as you will. As I understand it, you have been well educated at home?"

I nodded once more.

"Then I am sure you will have no problems attending the classes of your age group. Kitty, you will be in sixth year, and Ally in third year. You will both be able to choose some classes of your own later, and you will be given a timetable. Now," McGonagall stood and reached under her desk, retrieving a large, ratty hat with patches on it. "This is the sorting hat. Once you put it on, it will determine which house you will be in."

Once she indicated me, I stood, letting go of my sisters hand and walked over to her, letting her place the smelly hat on my head. After a few moments of expectant waiting, I heard someone whisper in my ear, giving me quite a shock.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," the hat whispered. "Kitty, hm..." it pondered. "Your parents were both in Slytherin, if I recall..." My parents had gone to this school? Why didn't I know that? "The apple _does_ fall far from the tree in this case. You are quite unlike them... I think, I shall put you in... GRYFFINDOR!" The last part it shouted to the room. McGonagall gave me a shocked look before smiling pleasantly at me.

Ally came up after I had taken the hat off and placed it hesitantly on her head. I suspected the hat was saying the same thing it told me, though Ally's face showed a look of horror as she listened to whatever it told her. Finally, the hat shouted, "SLYTHERIN!"

I looked to McGonagall, waiting for her to tell me there was a mistake. Ally looked like she were about to cry.

"I thought you said we would be in the same house?" I asked. I couldn't help my voice coming out sharp and harsh.

"In some cases siblings who are quite different are sorted into separate houses..."

Different? How could my sister and I be different? We were peas in a pod and we shared the same blood. "Surely, you could make an exception."

"I'm sorry, but rules are rules Miss Kelley. I'm sure you will both make fast friends with students in your respective houses."

I had to remind myself that the plan was to escape from this place as soon as possible, so being in different houses wasn't that big a deal. Though, being apart from each other would make the idea of escaping a whole lot harder. _On to the next leg of our journey_, I thought. What else could possibly go wrong now?

**Thanks again for reading :) Please R&R**


	4. Discovery and Denial

**Chapter Four - 'Discovery and Denial'**

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The Great Hall was probably the most awesome thing I had ever seen. Floating candles? Awesome. Magically enchanted roof sky? Awesome. Every food imaginable at your fingertips? Awesome. My sister and I finally reunited? Even more awesome. What more could you want?

We wandered in, probably looking like we'd been _Stupified_, with our mouths open gazing around us. The feast had already started and everyone was too busy stuffing their faces to notice us, and I was only too happy to join them. Unfortunately, Professor McGonagall gave us a hard stare to make sure we sat at out proper house tables, on opposite sides of the rooms. Before we left she had told us that we needed to make an effort to fit in with the kids as those in our year and house groups had spent several years together already.

"I'll meet you after the feast," I told Ally as we parted. She nodded and, looking meek and scared all alone, wandered over to the Slytherin table. It certainly did not look inviting. Most of the students in Slytherin were intimidating and bunched up in cliques. I noticed with a surge of anger the Blonde Git was in Slytherin and that Ally was forced to sit near him and his group. The Blonde Git was miming something to do with a nose, I noticed with a sinking stomach, much to the pleasure of his housemates. I made a mental note to tell Ally to stay away from them.

I tried to tear my focus away from Ally and walked to the Gryffindor table, where a much more accommodating group of students sat. With relief, I noticed the students I had shared a compartment with had a spare spot.

"Do you mind if I sit?" I asked quietly, trying not to interrupt their conversation.

Harry immediately shuffled over, pulling Ron with him so that I could sit in between Ron and another red haired girl who looked to be his sister. Hermione made introductions to the rest of the Gryffindor gang; Seamus, Dean, and Ginny.

"Why were you so late?" Hermione asked Harry from across the table.

Harry ducked his head and said quietly, "Draco Malfoy."

"Is that the blonde headed prick who broke your nose?" I asked, unable to help myself. Half the Gryffindor table turned their heads to stare at me and I realised I had spoken slightly too loud...

Harry nodded and grabbed a plate of chicken before digging in.

"He did _what_?" Hermione gasped and Ron just stared. Ginny gave a heated glare over at the Slytherin table and started going through curses under her breath.

"Let's talk about it later, I'm getting enough stares as it is," Harry said.

Looking around, I realised that he was right. Quite a few people were outright staring at him, whispering to their neighbours. Those who weren't kept stealing glances out of the corner of their eye.

"Why _is_ everyone staring at you?" I asked. I hated being out of the know.

"She doesn't know," Harry explained to the gobsmacked looks of his friends.

"Doesn't know...?" Ginny asked, trailing off.

"_Anything._"

"Is someone going to explain it to me or am I just going to have to sit in the dark here?" I asked, my irritation growing.

Hermione took the initiative, explaining to me the long winded story of Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, and his arch nemesis Voldemort. It took most of the feast, with many of Harry's friends jumping in often to add their own input to the story. It sounded completely surreal and I couldn't believe that the sixteen year old that sat before me had accomplished such things.

"... so basically, Harry's a celebrity." Hermione finished off at last as the plates were magically cleared away.

"Well, I guess I can't blame everyone for staring." I muttered, eyes wide. How had I not heard of this before? Oh, that's right. Apparently I don't know my parents at all and they hadn't thought to tell me. The thing that frightened me the most, however, was that I recognised some of the things spoken about. Death Eaters. Dumbledore had said something, I couldn't remember exactly what, about my parents being involved with them. I looked up at the old wizard with his twinkling blue eyes now as he gnawed at a chicken leg. Death Eaters. Hermione had said that they were Voldemort's inner circle, that they did evil deeds in his name and helped him rise to power. Why would my parents be involved with Voldemort? This was getting more complicated than I had thought.

I glanced behind me to look for my sister, as I had done most of the night, and was pleased to see that she had at least made an effort to engage someone in conversation. She was speaking to a girl who looked about my age, quite animatedly in fact. I smiled, happy to know that what was going on in her life didn't hinder her ability to enjoy herself a little.

"Is that you sister?" Hermione asked in a curious tone I couldn't recognise. Before I could respond, the talk and laughter in the hall died abruptly as Dumbledore stood at the head of the hall.

"The very best of evenings to you!" he opened his arms as though embracing the whole room.

I, along with everyone else in the room, stared openly at his hand, blackened as it was. I hadn't noticed anything unusual at St Mungo's, though I hadn't been in my most observational mood, but I was guessing it was a new affliction as everyone began whispering. Even Harry, Ron and Hermione began gossiping about it. Dumbledore ignored them and went on to discuss a few matters regarding things such as a new Potions teacher, Quidditch (what was that?) and some sort of joke shop prank bans. I tuned out, but when I heard a familiar name, my ears pricked up.

"Professor Snape, meanwhile, will be taking over position of Defence Against the Dark Arts." Dumbledore said.

"No!" Harry almost shouted.

Many people, myself included, turned to look at him strangely. My assumption about his animosity towards the hook-nosed teach must have been right after all. Harry was outright glaring at him as he waved lazily at the applause from the Slytherin table. I watched as the girl Ally had been talking to prompted her to clap along too.

"He'll be gone by the end of the year, the job's cursed after all," Ron commented. "No one's lasted more than a year," he explained to my puzzled look.

All around the hall, students were buzzing with the latest information, though I couldn't see what the big deal was.

Dumbledore cleared his throat to get everyone's attention, "Now as everybody knows, Lord Voldemort is once again at large and gaining followers." I looked down at my plate and made myself as small as possible, willing the old man not to look at me. He didn't go into specifics, for which I was grateful, but instead talked about the importance of caution and safety before he bid us goodnight in a rather odd fashion, though everyone else seemed to act as though his oddness was usual.

As everyone was making their way out of their chairs, I managed to avoid the crowd and jump over to the Slytherin table to where Ally sat, listening to her new friend.

"... so _lame_," the Slytherin girl finished, her nasally voice trailing off as she watched me approach. "What are you doing here, Gryffindor?" she barked at me, eyeing the red tie and red and gold crest of the robes I had changed into after McGonagall's sorting.

I ignored her jibe and turned to Ally. "Let's go, maybe we can talk before we have to go to common room." Ally turned away from her friend, giving her a shrug and stood up.

"Wait, you're friends with her?" the Slytherin girl asked.

Ally turned around and knotted her hands together. "Yeah, she's... my sister," she admitted quietly. It was strange of Ally to be quiet and meek, usually she was the bubbliest, chirpiest person in the room.

The Slytherin gave me a once over that immediately made me hate her. "Draco," she whined, finished with her degrading inspection. "Let's go, baby."

"Pansy, I'm staying behind for a bit-" Draco said as he turned around, breaking off as he spied me.

"Blonde git," I muttered. Draco narrowed his grey eyes down at me.

Pansy looked between the two of us before standing up and dragging Ally from my side to her side. "Al has to come with us. She's a Slytherin."

Tearing my death stare from Draco, I looked over to Ally. "Are you going to be okay?" I asked her, trying to gauge if she would survive without me until tomorrow.

Ally nodded, her face flaming red with embarrassment. "You're not my mum, gee," she muttered, earning laughter from her Slytherin friends. She smiled with pleasure at their reaction.

"Okay, we'll talk in the morning." I said. The way she was acting confused me, but there would be plenty of time to discuss that, along with our escape plans, in the morning.

Ally didn't say goodbye, she just let herself be carried out of the Great Hall by her friends, leaving me and a handful of other students, Draco Malfoy included, behind.

I heaved a sigh and rubbed a hand over my face and through my hair, now a long, red tangled mess down my back. I needed a good long shower and an equally good long sleep. I wandered out of the hall, in no rush to be confronted with another crowd of people, and realised I had left my duffel in the classroom with Professor McGonagall. Breaking off from the trickle of people leaving the hall, I moved to the classroom and peeked inside. It was dark and empty so I entered and grabbed my duffel bag from the corner of the room where I had dumped it while getting changed into my new school robes. By the time I exited, the last remaining students had left the Great Hall and I was alone in the Entrance Hall. It was eerily quiet, and being such a big place, every step I took echoed too loudly. I made my way to the staircase and began to climb before I realised something.

"Shit," I cursed. Where was I going?

Low laughter emerged from behind me. I turned around, whipping my wand out of my pocket. "Deja vu?" Draco Malfoy said as he stepped out of the shadows beside the Great Hall. He eyed my wand, pointed at his chest.

I rolled my eyes, "Not you again." I lowered my wand, but kept it in my hand.

He wandered up the steps and stopped level with me, leaning on the banister casually beside me, hands in his pockets. "Lost are we?" he asked with a smirk.

"No," I answered stubbornly, glaring. "I was just going to the Gryffindor common room."

"So you're going to the dungeons then?"

"Right." I began to step down the stairs, feigning that I knew what I was doing.

He laughed again. "Wrong, that would be Slytherin's common room. You _definitely_ don't want to turn up there."

Great. I could feel my face heat with embarrassment. "Fine. I'm lost, happy?"

"Immensely."

"Are you going to tell me where to go?" I asked after silence. His casual stance and playful smirk irritated me to no end. Not three hours ago he had been hissing at me and glaring after I foiled his ridiculous beating up of Harry. How is it that now he's all laughter and smirks?

"No," was his simple reply. He was so smarmy and happy with himself that I thought magic just wouldn't cut it- I wanted to punch him. Hard.

Sharp clicks approached and Professor McGonagall appeared below us. "Oh, Mr Malfoy, Miss Kelley, what are you still doing here?" she asked, disapproval clear in her tone.

"I wasn't sure where the common room was, I missed everyone leaving." I explained, grateful that I wasn't alone with Draco anymore.

She frowned at me and Draco, before she apparently came to a decision. "Mr Malfoy, you seem to be free at this present moment. Why don't you show Miss Kelley to her common room? I'm sure you know where it is, you are a prefect after all. I have to deal with a first year who accidentally ate a charmed pudding during the feast."

Draco opened his mouth, no doubt to protest, but McGonagall hurried off without another word.

I gave Draco a sarcastic smirk. I didn't want to have to spend any more time with him than was necessary, but it was certainly worth it to see the furious pinched look on his face.

"Ha. Suck it."

He didn't respond, just scuffed his shoe on the stair in irritation and loped up the staircase three at a time.

"Hey! Wait up!" I called after him, my much shorter legs taking the stairs only one at a time.

I finally caught up to him and glared. He led me through a maze of corridors and finally up a huge room of countless staircases to what seemed to be the very top of the tower. For all I knew, he could be leading me to the top just to push me off it. By the time we reached what appeared to be the floor of the common room, I was puffing like a mad woman. We slowed down to a casual stroll while I caught my breath, though Draco seemed unaffected by the amount of stairs and walking. He must be fit, I thought. Unlike myself.

We hadn't spoken the entire way, me out of anger and disinterest, and him for probably the same reasons. But he finally broke the silence;

"I met your sister," he commented casually.

"Don't you dare speak, touch, think, look at, walk with, or interact with her in any way, shape or form. Do you understand me?" I exploded. The thought of Draco having anything to do with her made my brain hurt and my wand hand twitch.

Draco looked pleased at my reaction. "Hate me that much already do you?"

"How could you tell?"

"Well, I _did_ speak to her. She told me about your parents."

I froze on the spot. "What did she say?"

Draco walked a few paces ahead before he noticed I hadn't kept up. He turned around and gave me a measured look. "I know who they are. You don't have to cover it up."

"I don't know what you're talking about." I had a sneaking suspicion, but I wasn't about to spill my guts to this git.

Draco rolled his eyes and walked up to me, getting closer than I was comfortable with. I could smell his aftershave, something expensive I was willing to bet. "My father... he's in the same group as your parents are, if you catch my drift."

I couldn't believe it. Not one day in this place and people already knew about mum and dad, and they knew things that I had only just learnt myself. "No, I don't catch your drift. My parents aren't a part of any 'group' and never will be!"

Draco stepped back, giving me more space to breathe. "You're just a wimp. You bloody well know I'm right. Don't come crying to me when everyone finds out and stops talking to you," he snarled, his face returning to the sneering expression I had seen on the train.

I was starting to get whiplash from his abrupt mood swings. One moment he's all snide jokes and playful jabs and the next he's snarling insults at me.

Draco's sneering expression changed for a moment and he frowned down at me. "They'll find out you know," Draco said, "And when they do, you'll become the enemy, not just me."

"I don't know what you're talking about," I avoided his probing grey eyes. I was only just discovering things about my parents, but could they have been involved in something as dangerous as this?

His sneering expression returned and he was back to the Draco Malfoy I had seen on the train. "You can find your own way from here. It's down the hall. Bloody Gryffindors."

"Screw you," I muttered as he stalked away, off down the direction we'd come. I turned on my heel, refusing to be the only one to be making a dramatic exit out of the conversation. When I got to the end of the hall, that's when my anger began to fade and my confusion settled in. There was no door at the end, only a wall and some paintings, one of a particularly large woman in a toga who sat snoring.

I wandered over to the wall and looked for any signs of a hidden door, but there was none I could see. I walked over to a painting to the side, a young girl and her mother who were still awake despite the late hour.

"Excuse me," I started, "I'm looking for the Gryffindor common room. I'm late."

The mother inspected me closely for treachery but when she spotted my uniform with the Gryffindor colours she revealed that the painting of the Fat Lady was the door and the password was Dilligrout. When I spoke it aloud, the Fat Lady woke up and swung open, revealing the Gryffindor common room.

It was a richly decorated place, spacious and with a gorgeous view of a large lake below in the grounds, but I didn't have the time or energy to sit about enjoying it. A few students had stayed up and sat by the fire playing chess or talking and when I asked, they pointed me to the girls dorm which I entered with much relief.

Hermione had already gone to sleep, along with the other girls in my year, Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown, according to the names on their suitcases.

I found the bathroom that led off the dorm and hastily ran in for a quick shower, washing my hair and scrubbing the dirt and anger off my body before changing into some soft pajamas I found folded on my bed.

I cast a quick charm on my hair to dry it before bed and slipped in between the sheets, my mind filled with the conversation I'd had with Draco. What had he meant by saying that his father was in the same group as my parents? I wondered if he'd meant the Death Eaters, as Dumbledore had suggested. While I could certainly picture Draco being a part of something that sinister, I couldn't imagine my dad, the man who had raised me or my mother, the woman who had given birth to me, mixed up in anything as serious as Lord Voldemort and his wars. It was true that I was only just discovering how little I knew about them, but was it really possible that they had been hiding something as dangerous and hideous as this?

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**Thanks again for reading. Pleeeease review! It really means the world to me :) **


	5. Liquid Luck and Paper Princes

**Chapter Five - Liquid Luck and Paper Princes**

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I don't know whether it was because the bed was enchanted to do so, or because it had been days since I'd had a good nights sleep, but I slept like a log on my first night at Hogwarts. I had expected dreams and nightmares to plague me, but my night was mercifully peaceful. When I woke up, the three other girls in the dorm were already awake and preening themselves for the first day. Hermione sat on her bed, flipping through her books.

"Good morning," Hermione greeted, smiling pleasantly.

"Morning," I replied groggily.

"This is Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil," Hermione introduced me to the girls who stood over by the floor length mirror, preening themselves. They both smiled and offered their own greetings.

"So what do we do this morning?" I asked, picking out my uniform from the trunk at the end of my bed. It had been pressed and folded and smelt like freesia.

"We go to the Great Hall for breakfast and they give us our timetables," Lavender explained, her wand applying makeup to her face. "I hope I get heaps of free periods."

I got dressed quickly and put my hair up in an easy pony tail.

"Do you want me to do you hair for you?" Lavender asked excitedly as she watched my quick, daily routine. "I know tons of cosmetic spells!"

"It's fine, I'm not much of a girly girl..."

"No, I want to do it! It'll be fun! Plus, we have heaps of time before we need to be at breakfast." Lavender stood and bounced over to me, her blonde curls flying. Her enthusiasm was almost scary.

Hermione gave me a sympathetic grin and grabbed her bag before heading to the door. "I'm going down. I'll see you later."

"Wait! Aren't you going to do Hermione's hair?" I asked. I gave Hermione a pleading, don't-leave-me-alone look.

Lavender rolled her eyes as Hermione quickly vanished down the stairs. "She doesn't like looking pretty. But _you_ have _so_ much potential."

I sat as still as possible while Lavender attacked my hair, spells flying everywhere. Parvati sat on her bed, faintly amused as she applied some light make up herself. As Lavender went to grab a brush, Parvati came over to me.

"Sorry about her," she whispered conspiratorially, "she likes making people into her human-sized dolls. She means well."  
"It's fine," I sighed. "But I really need to go, I promised I'd meet my sister."

"Go, I'll explain to her." Parvati smiled again.

I gave her a grateful smile and practically ran for the door, pausing only to grab my bag. As I hopped down the stairs, I started tugging the elastics that held my hair together but to no avail. She really had stuck them in well with some sort of charm. By the time my hair was back in its messy tangle again, Lavender had made her way down behind me.

"It fell out." I quickly told her.

"I guess the charms didn't work..." Lavender looked disheartened. She glanced around the common room, as though searching for someone but looked disappointed. "Alright, let's go down to breakfast together."

I went along with it and we exited out through the portrait. As we walked down the hall, Lavender chatting away pleasantly about what she'd done during her summer, we passed by Harry, Ron and Hermione who had just confiscated a frisbee from a younger student. As we walked by, Ron said something that was apparently hilarious as Lavender began to laugh loudly and quite hysterically beside me, though I couldn't understand why. She looked back over her shoulder at Ron and gave him a wink.

"Isn't he cute? And he's practically famous! He's best friends with Harry Potter." Lavender gushed.

"Yeah," I replied, watching Ron's flaming red face as he smiled back at Lavender. "Are you two going out or something?"

Lavender laughed. "Not yet!"

We walked down to the Great Hall together and when we got there I had to interrupt Lavender's recitation of Ron's hobbies and favourite foods. "Sorry, I've got to speak to my sister."

"Oh-" she looked like she just realised that I was there. "Sure." She walked over to the Gryffindor table while I made my way over to the dreaded Slytherin table. Thankfully Draco wasn't there yet.

"Ally," I greeted. She smiled at me meekly and said something to the gaggle of friends that surrounded her, they nodded and went back to whatever they were talking about. Ally stood and dragged me to a bench at the back of the Hall.

"What is it?" she asked as we sat down. I gave her a once over, making sure the Slytherin's hadn't messed with her overnight.

"Okay, so we need to figure out a plan to get out of this place," I started. I looked around, making sure no one overheard us. Over at the teachers table, most of the professors were busy eating their breakfast but Dumbledore was absently looking over in our direction. I readjusted my position so that I didn't have to look at him. "I heard from a girl in my dorm that there's a trip to the village Hogsmeade down the road in a few weeks. I was thinking we could catch a train from there."

Ally nodded along, though her eyes wandered the Hall.  
"What do you think?"

"Yeah, sounds like a plan."

"Are you okay?" I asked. "You're being awfully quiet."

"I just... what do you think happened to mum and dad?"

I had been trying not to think about that. "I don't know. I'm sure they're fine though." I said quietly. "This is all just a misunderstanding. Once we get out of this place everything will sort itself out."

Ally nodded and remained quiet. I was about to ask her what was wrong, but Professor McGonagall had arrived with our timetables.

"Which classes do you wish to take, girls?" she asked us, unaware of the conversation she had interrupted.

I ended up going for Defence Against the Dark Arts, Charms, Transfiguration, Herbology, Muggle Studies and Potions and Ally chose classes of a similar nature.

"These are good choices," McGonagall observed, handing us our timetables. "I hope you enjoy your classes."

"Thank you." I waited until she had wandered out of ear shot. "Do you think you can last until the Hogsmeade trip?"

Ally was examining her timetable with a small smile. "Of course, it's... nice here."

Satisfied, I stood. "Want to get some breakfast together?"

"Actually, I promised Pansy I'd eat with her this morning."

I remembered last night at the feast and my blood boiled. "Are you two friends?"

"Yeah, she's really nice to me. She's in your year, I think."

"Before you go," I grabbed her arm, "make sure you don't say anything about mum or dad or... our situation, okay? If word gets out people will start getting suspicious and we won't be able to make a clean getaway." I said in a low voice.

"You're so paranoid," Ally rolled her eyes, reminding me of myself.

"Ally," I said, a not of warning in my tone.

"Fine, I promise I won't say anything. Can I go now?"

I nodded and watched as she flounced away to her Slytherin friends, smile on her face as they greeted her with open arms. Draco sat with the group of friends she hung out with, his arm slung around Pansy's shoulder. I could feel his grey eyes on me but I resolutely refused to meet his gaze, knowing it was probably full of malice and contempt. Instead, I walked over to the Gryffindor table and sat with my fellow sixth years. Harry and Ron greeted me as I sat beside Hermione and grabbed a piece of toast.

"Did Professor McGonagall give you a timetable?" Hermione asked politely.

"Yeah, I've got a free period this morning." I replied, buttering the toast and taking a bite.

"So do we," Harry put in, eating his porridge with enthusiasm.

"What do you do around here during free periods?" I asked.

"Go back to the common room or hang around by the lake," Ron said, "Anything really."

"Or you could go to the library! That's what I usually do." Hermione put in. Ron and Harry exchanged glances and sniggered.

I nodded and stayed quiet while the rest of them discussed an issue with Care of Magical Creatures. Apparently none of them had opted to take that class and they were worried about offending the teacher, Hagrid. The three of them had their own little bubble as they chatted and I sat back, my mind involuntarily turning to the conversation I'd had with Draco Malfoy the night before.

"Listen, guys I'm going to go," I stood up and grabbed a piece of toast to go. I looked towards Hermione, "Can you point me towards the library?"

I followed her directions and found myself in a huge room simply filled with rows upon rows of books of all shapes and sizes. Some were placed on tables because they simply couldn't fit in the shelves, while others were as small as my fingertips. I walked over to the librarian who sat writing new rules on a six foot long parchment.

"Excuse me," I said quietly. She looked up with a frown. "Do you know where I can find any books on Hogsmeade?"

"Yes, I'll take you to them," she sniffed and rolled up her parchment.  
An idea occurred to me, "Also, are there books about the war?"

And that was how I spent my free period. I was the only one in the library at that hour, especially on the first day of class. The librarian had managed to find only two books that mentioned Hogsmeade, but a whole bookcase had been dedicated to the War involving You-Know-Who (aka Voldemort) and an analysis. It was pretty heavy stuff. According to Madam Pince, I only had another half an hour before Defence Against the Dark Arts began so I chose a few volumes on the War and a book containing a map of Hogsmeade to borrow from the library. Madam Pince gave me a withering glare as I stuffed them unceremoniously into my bag before heading off to class.

It took me a while, but eventually I managed to find my way to the Defence classroom where Snape let us in. The room was as dark and dismal as the man who taught in it. Today, we were being taught non-verbal spells. I didn't pay attention and sat at the very back of the class; I knew how to cast non-verbal spells so nothing was new to me. When Snape asked us to pair off and practice, I couldn't help asking to be excused from class.

"Do you think yourself above your peers, Miss Kelley?" Snape sneered at me. The rest of the class had already stood and started practicing.

"No, sir." I could feel myself shrinking under his gaze. His dark eyes bore holes through me.

"In that case, you will partner up and _practice_ like the rest of them. Do not mistake your pride and arrogance for skill again or it will be detention." Snape said coolly before swooping away to correct Neville on his 'appalling' stance and spell casting.

As I reluctantly stood, feeling the sting in the words because they felt dangerously close to the truth, I surveyed the room for a possible partner. Unfortunately for me, everyone had partnered up already. On the other side of the room, I watched Draco Malfoy as he observed his two thick headed friends sending curses at Neville behind his back that made him trip and fall. Snape, the ever present bat he was, was watching with an amused expression on his face. With what looked like reluctant obligation, he berated them lightly and told Draco to partner up with someone instead of watching his friends do the work. Snape pointed towards me. At that moment, I wish I knew an invisibility spell.

Draco sauntered towards me, his face twisted bitterly.

"What a brilliant start to the year," he commented sarcastically as he stood opposite me in a duelers stance.

I said nothing. No doubt he would use this opportunity to get some payback. I watched his face for any sign of spell work in his mind, my _Protego_ spell ready.

Quick as a flash, a streak of purple light flew from his wand. It was so fast, I almost didn't catch it in time, but it crashed against my shield all the same. There was no doubt in my mind that he had been trained in non verbal magic before.

I flicked a counter-curse back at him and his own shield absorbed the spell, though I could tell he was just as surprised at my speed as I was of his.

It went back and forth in the same dance for the rest of the lesson, each curse getting more complicated than the next, both of us trying to outdo the other one. I was good at casting attack spells and I knew how to cast a solid _Protego_ shield, but Draco soon learned that I had little knowledge of defending against more obscure curses and charms that required specialised shields and he used it to his advantage. After a while, I had several bruises, scrapes and tingling sensations all over my body from the bastards bloody curses. It was probably against the rules to cast curses like that but Draco had an uncanny knack for being able to cast them just at the right time when Snape wasn't looking.

"You aren't allowed to cast these kinds of spells," I growled out at him at one point.

"You mean this kind of spell?" He flicked his wand and a razor sharp spell came out, slicing deep into my forearm. I gasped in shock and glared at him. It was partially my fault for being too slow to dodge or counter but even so. Draco eyed the wound as it began bleeding profusely, his face betraying some of the guilt he felt. But seeing my gaze, he quickly hid it and placed a smirk on his face.

"Too slow," he said. I cast a quick healing spell on it while he was distracted, though the curse prevented the cut from healing completely.

Eventually, when Snape called the end of the lesson, Draco cast a strange orange and blue streaked spell that caught me off guard. My legs went numb and I fell face first to the floor, nearly breaking my nose as I fell forward, unable to maneuver my legs. Draco laughed derisively.

"I don't know how to undo it!" I called up to him, trying to push myself to standing position to no avail. More laughter followed. "You can't just leave me here!"

I could see dozens of pairs of legs walking out the door as the class left, nobody noticed me on the floor. Even Professor Snape's dark trailing cloak wandered out the door, though he obviously knew I was there. Bastard. I could see no one else in the room. I was alone.

"Git. Bloody blonde git. I knew he was a cruel, good for nothing little-" the numbness in my legs drained suddenly and I jumped up. Draco stood near the door, putting his wand back in his pocket, expression unreadable.

"You should probably go to the infirmary and have Madam Pomfrey check that out." He glanced pointedly at the cut on my arm and then left the room.

I had a free period next and the cut was starting to throb so I thought it best to follow Draco's advice, however reluctant I was to do so.

"How on earth did you come to get such a wound? And on your first day no less!" Madam Pomfrey exclaimed as she dabbed a bitter smelling potion on it. "It's deep, and that curse is slowing up the healing process. Whoever casted it wanted you to bleed."

I remained tight lipped; I wasn't going to rat him out. I was pretty sure I'd given him a few bruises and cuts anyway. By the time Madam Pomfrey had bandaged up my arm and I made my way to the common room, it was almost lunch time. Instead of going all the way down to the Great Hall to eat, I stayed in my dorm and skimmed through a few chapters of one of the books I'd borrowed earlier before stowing them away at the bottom of the trunk at the end of my bed. The next class I had was Potions so I made my way to the dungeons. Among the handful of students waiting, was Draco, who I planned to avoid like the plague.

Potions class was actually quite enjoyable. Professor Slughorn had prepared a few different potions, including Felix Felicis the luck potion, and had us create the Draft of Living Death in a competition for a vial of the golden potion. Along with everyone else, I could see the use of such a potion. My thoughts jumped immediately to the Hogsmeade trip and how I could split it with Ally to give us a real chance of getting out of here.

The whole class seemed to be in some sort of frenzy. I was at a table with Harry, Ron and Hermione, along with Ernie Macmillan. I was sharing Hermione's potions book as mine were still on their way. They were all used to the routine of following the books instructions and finding their ingredients; _I_ on the other hand was not used to it. While my parents had taught me about potions and their effects, brewing them from scratch was a different matter entirely. I soon found that I was dismally horrible at it and all hopes of winning the liquid luck potion vanished from my mind.

"How do you crush these things?" I asked of Hermione, who seemed to know what she was doing.

She frantically brushed a stray hair from her face and helped me crush the little buggers before going back to her own potion. I added my crushed sopopherous beans and watched with a sinking heart as the potion in my cauldron turned to a sluggish green colour. Not what it was supposed to do. I removed the potion with a flick of my wand and slumped down onto my stool. This was hopeless.

Looking about the room, I saw that everybody was concentrating intently on their own potions. Even Draco Malfoy was trying his best, focusing on stirring his potion the right amount of times. His face held something more than everyone else's though; it was almost filled with hard desperation, as though his life hung in the balance over the outcome of this trivial classroom competition.

At the end of the lesson, Slughorn announced the Harry had won the competition and gave him the vial of liquid luck. Draco's face betrayed how crushed he was, he looked ready to murder someone and glared icily at Harry.

"Miss Kelley, may I please speak to you for a moment after class?" Professor Slughorn requested as we all packed our ingredients up. I nodded and shrugged off the curious looks from my peers. I was finished packing up earlier than everyone else as I had given up on the potion, so I wandered over to Slughorn's desk.

"You wanted to see me, sir?" I asked cautiously as he indulged in a sweet from the bowl on the table. He was quite a large, well rounded man so it seemed he indulged in them quite often.

"Ah yes, yes m'dear," he bent forward and placed his beefy arms on the desk. "I noticed that you were having a spot of trouble today..."

"About that..." I started. "I'm not used to this kind of potion making. I usually only study theory. I was home schooled, actually."

Professor Slughorn nodded and stroked his chin, thinking. "Perhaps you might reconsider taking Advanced Potions? You don't have to decide right away of course, but it may be prudent to rethink your strengths."

"Yes, sir. I'll think about it."

"Good, good. Now off you trot!"

Having effectively been dismissed, I turned to leave the classroom along with everyone else. I fell into step with Hermione, who immediately started talking about the textbook that Harry had been given.  
"I mean, it's sort of cheating isn't it?" she was saying, looking to me for confirmation. "It wasn't the right way to make the potion and everybody else was going by the instructions!"

I hadn't really noticed what Harry had been doing but nodded all the same. "Yes, I really wanted that Felix Felicis too."

"Oh, did you? Was there a reason?" she asked, nosy as ever.

I looked down as we walked up the dungeon stairs. "No... nothing in particular."

Hermione thankfully let the subject drop and walked on to harass Harry some more about his potions textbook.

We had an hour before dinner was served so I took the opportunity to go outside into the grounds. I had been craving fresh air and a break from the crowds of people that seemed to be constantly roaming the halls of Hogwarts. As I stepped out of the building and into the setting sunlight, I realised just how big this place was. In the distance, I could see the Quidditch pitch with its high bleachers and goal posts hundreds of feet in the air. Down the hill and to my left was the lake that Ron had told me about where a few students lingered, making the most of their free time. Directly down the hill from me was a hut, smoke billowing out its chimney. As I sat down on a bench beside the castle, a hulking giant of a man came lumbering out of the forest, a group of third years at his heels.

"Can you all 'ave your Bowtruckle sketches done by nex' lesson?" he asked of the students who nodded in assent.

I could see Ally standing in the crowd of third years, dutifully taking down the homework. But as I watched, her friend spoke to her, too low for me to hear, and they both sniggered as their teacher bent over to pick something up, his large backside rising in the air. The friend looked like she was prodding Ally, persuading her. Finally, Ally raised her wand and sneakily sent a spell at their teacher, causing his pants to rip, exposing his boxers with baby dragons on them. The whole class erupted in laughter as their teacher got so flustered he tripped over in his haste to cover his voluminous bottom with his hands.

Disappointment flooded me. It stayed with me until Ally and her friends made it to the castle. I had planned on talking to her, asking her about what she'd done and why she was so different lately, but I found myself hiding behind the door as they walked past, still laughing about what had happened.

Over the next few days, life at Hogwarts pretty much reflected that idea. I'd attempt to have a serious conversation with my sister, but it would always end up with her avoiding answering my questions, or me avoiding asking them. It didn't help that we both had homework to keep up with, along with a social life in her case, though I failed to understand what she could see in the company she kept. The Gyffindor crew were always there to help on homework I knew nothing about, and I found that the more I actually listened to them instead of being so aloof, the more I came to understand the value of having friends. Even so, I doubled my efforts on finding out more about the war. I told myself that I was only curious, but to be honest, I wanted to make sure that my parents weren't involved. I didn't know what I would do if they were. I also studied the map of Hogsmeade until I knew it off by heart; the train station, the routes to get there, shops where I could borrow supplies, anything that would help. The more I planned the escape, the more I realised that we would need a lot of luck to pull it off. Each Potions lesson I had, I couldn't help the covetous glances I stole at the storage cupboard where I knew the leftover Felix Felicis was kept. But it was kept tightly under lock and key, and most likely a few enchantments, to keep people out.

On the Friday afternoon, as I packed up my cauldron and the leftover ingredients of the days lesson, I watched as Professor Slughorn opened the cupboard with a few flicks of his wand. He placed something back inside and quickly shut the doors, just as I glimpsed a glint of gold in the corner. He glanced around and caught my blatant staring, giving me a suspicious look as I pretended to study the homework on the board.

"Bit of a shame it's going to waste, isn't it?" someone asked from behind me, obviously talking about the liquid luck.

"Yeah, it really is..." I murmured, my mind on my escape plans.

"I suppose it's almost a crime to let it just sit there, if we had a use for it ourselves..."

With what I'm sure was a very confused, suspicious look on my face, I turned to face whoever had graced me with their presence.

"Draco," I stated, deadpan. "Why am I not surprised?"

He gave me a droll look and folded his long arms. "I see you got that cut checked out. Good."

"Yeah, right. Thanks for that." I went back to packing up my things.

"As I was saying before, I just think it's shame a potion _that_ useful and valuable is getting wasted."

"I suppose." I strove for aloof and uninterested but I knew he could hear the falsity in my voice. I kept my back to him, not inviting any more conversation.

I had a few brief seconds of silence before his voice was right beside me, his breath tickling my ear as he whispered, "I've seen you watching it. Don't pretend you don't want it."

I refused to turn and meet his grey eyes, slightly afraid at what I would see in them. Instead, I stepped to the side. "So what if I want it?" I could see out of the corner of my eye that he was intently focused on me. It made me squirm in discomfort.  
"It seems like we have a mutual goal. There's enough in that batch for _at least_ two people..."

"What are you suggesting?" I asked, though I knew. I just wanted to hear him say it.

"I'm suggesting that we help each other out. Both sides get what they want and everybody's happy."

"That's stealing," I told him. I'd finished packing my stuff so I finally turned to him, meeting his intrigued stormy eyes with my hard blue ones. His mouth curved into a smile at my words.

"Is it? Or is it more of a crime for Slughorn to keep it all for himself?" Draco laughed lowly at my expression. "Think about it."

"I won't," I told him as he moved away from me, heading towards the door.

"Oh, I know you will."

**I have a question; What would you do if you had Liquid Luck for a day? Thanks again for reading, I hope you enjoyed and continue to read! Please R&R.**


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